


Don't Close the Lights

by SEABlRD



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, M/M, Paranormal Investigators AU, Swearing, Tags to be added, lots of swearing.
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-04
Updated: 2015-06-13
Packaged: 2018-02-24 01:41:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2563589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SEABlRD/pseuds/SEABlRD
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Not many people believe in ghosts and ghouls, these days."</p><p>in which the Kirishima siblings are aspiring paranormal investigators and have a very good (bad?) time with the ghost of Kaneki Ken</p><p>[edit edit] I'm thinking of orphaning this work, if not straight up deleting it. I love the plot but have no motivation to finish it _(：3 」∠ )_</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First step: get info

            "Touka!" the boy screams for the umpteenth, furiously shaking his laptop and wiping it's screen to make sure he read properly. "Touka! TOUKA!"

            "Shut the FUCK up Ayato or so help me I am shoving that entire goddamn computer up your ass." Touka snarls as she leans out of her room with only a bra and a pair of too-big shorts on. Her bangs fall into her eyes haphazardly and she struggles to get herself awake enough to care about pushing them out of the way. "You better have a damn good reason to be screaming my name at fuck-you-o-clock in the morning."

            "Sorry, princess." Ayato rolls his eyes, turning to face his twin sister. His own mop of hair is brushed back with a headband into a style that makes him look about five years younger than he should."I thought you might be interested in the idea of having an actual case, for once. Not some bullshit a gang of twelve year olds sends us, an actual case. With a real ghost."

            Touka blinks owlishly, shutting her door with a loud bang before re-emerging with a t-shirt on. "A _real_ case? Someone actually took us seriously?" she asks, pulling up her shorts and tying them up, then reaching over to yank the headband off of Ayato's head (to which he protest loudly). She glances at the webpage her brother pulled up and reads through it quickly. "What the hell do the HySy ghost hunters want with a pair of nineteen year old rookie paranormal enthusiasts?"

            The boy shrugs, clicking the email HySy sent them. "Who knows? They probably saw this case, thought it was interesting, and emailed us."

            "Well, what does the email say, then?"

            Ayato gives Touka a _look_ before reading the email out loud to her. "It says: _'Dear Kirishima twins, it's wonderful to hear that kids are interested in investigating the paranormal! Not many people believe in ghosts and ghouls, these days, so it's refreshing to hear that there are still some that want to keep digging for answers. Since you guys don't have much experience in hunting just yet, we wanted to share with you a case that we've been looking into for a couple of months now._

_HySy has been having some difficulties solving this case, especially since Mr. Yomo's gap year is coming very quickly to an end, so a few new pairs of eyes could be just the thing we need to solve this mystery once and for all! Please consider collaborating with us on this case!_

_All the best, your friendly neighborhood HySy hunter Uta.'_

 

            And that's followed by a link to the files they shared with us. What do you think? Should we take it?"

            A few seconds pass as Touka rereads the email, slowly gaining more and more enthusiasm. "I think we need to take the case with them! What's wrong with you? How could you even consider otherwise?" she laughs, nearly vibrating with excitement. "HySy hunters wants to work with us! Ayato, an internet-famous paranormal investigation group wants to collaborate with us, on a case even _they_ are having problems with!"

            Ayato winces as his twin's voice approaches eardrum threatening decibels, opening the files and sending them all to the printer; the pair always preferred working with paper rather than digital copies whenever they can. He trips over a chair leg on his way to collect the documents as Touka continues to rave about how amazing HySy hunters are, looking over the map Mr. Uta provided them with.

            "Hey, this actually isn't too far from us." he remarks, sitting on the edge of the table. "'Antiqua Motel'. That's, like, five hours from here, give or take. We could literally make it there before lunchtime if we leave right now."

            "We are leaving right now, then." Touka orders, already on her way to the closet to pull out both of their suitcases. "Right fucking now."

\---

            After a bickering-filled half hour of packing and approximately three cups of coffee, Ayato finds himself sitting behind the wheel of his old truck with Touka lightly dozing off in the passenger's seat. He sighs, glancing at the map in Touka's lap every once in a while to make sure he hadn't missed any important turns. Out of the corner of his eye, he watches as the sky turns from purple to blue.

            After two hours of driving, he pulls into a gas station and hits Touka's shoulder none too gently. The girl jolts awake with a small noise, hitting her knee on the glove compartment door. "What the fuck was that for?" she demands, rubbing the sore spot on her knee.

            "Your turn to drive." Ayato grunts as he reaches into the back seat for his wallet. "Also, I gotta take a piss."

            Touka sighs, getting out of the truck and moving to the driver's side, pulling the door open and giving her twin a look of disgust. "Wow, I did need to know that." she frowns, pulling Ayato out of the car before slamming the door shut and pulling the gas pump nozzle out to refill the tank.

            The boy makes his way to the gas station's washroom fairly quickly, wanting to get to the motel at least this afternoon. After washing his hands, he goes back to the truck and slides into the passenger's seat. He picks up the papers he printed earlier and reads the case's story again.

            Three years ago, a 18 year old boy went missing, and his body was never found. He frequently visited Antiqua Motel, where his friend works, and he was actually last seen on the motel's property. About seven months after the boy's disappearance, strange happenings began to occur at the motel: mainly disembodied crying, flickering lights, shrieking and groaning, and objects being moved around.

            While most of the activity could easily be dismissed as bad maintenance, pipes and whatnot, things moving around on their own is definitely something to check out. HySy couldn't close this case? It seems incredibly simple to Ayato. Touka comes back and starts up the engine.

            "Why do you figure HySy couldn't get this case?" Ayato asks, flipping through the files they've been sent. Close to no leads are listed, and the only serious leads they have are vague at best. "It looks like a standard haunting, to me."

            "Read the last page, dumbass." Touka scoffs. "They practically spell it out for you. The haunting only occur once a year during a specific time frame, which is, like, a week, so investigating it would take a lot more than just one team. And like Uta said, Yomo is finishing his gap year this year, so this might be the last time HySy hunters gets serious investigating time."

            A seasonal haunting that only happens once a year? That's fucking stupid. Ayato flips back to the first page, with all the alleged victim's information on it. Kaneki Ken, 18 years old, three years missing and probably dead, only haunts the Antique motel once per year for a certain time bracket, meaning a limited investigation time. The "Ghost of Antiqua" case is proving to be a little more complicated than it originally seemed.


	2. Second step: locate target

                The twins make it to Antiqua Motel in decent time, even after taking a lunch break. Touka pulls into the parking lot with ease and maybe a bit too much speed, coming to a stop in a space not too far from the front lobby and, coincidentally, the only other car in the whole lot. Ayato exits the truck first, headed toward the lobby at a brisk pace.

                "Hey, what's the hurry?" Touka asks sweetly as she exists the truck as well. The boy flips her the finger over his shoulder.

                "I have to fucking piss again," he calls. "Just get us a room or something."

                "That's why you shouldn't have had five cups of coffee, dumbass!" she yells, flipping him the finger in return. "Fucking hell, you'd think that, after three years of drinking coffee, you'd figure out that you shouldn't drink that much when we go on long trips. Stupid ass brother."

                A brief movement behind her causes her to whip around, coming face to face with a tall man with dark hair in a half shave. He looms over Touka almost menacingly, tilting his head to the side and peering at her over his sunglasses. His sclera are black, she remarks. Is that even natural? Maybe he's some sort of drug addict with a criminal record. Very reassuring.

                "Would you happen to be miss Kirishima?" the man asks, pushing his glasses up. Touka notices that he has tattoos on his knuckles. She leans away from him warily, eyeing his hands the whole time.

                "What if I was?" she counters, putting her hands on her hips. She's been told many times that it makes her look like a child, but it's a habit she can't seem to break. The man grins and offers her his hand to shake.

                "I am Uta, from HySy." he declares. "It's a pleasure to meet you. Seeing as you are the only other people here, I'm assuming you and your brother are the Kirishima siblings I've contacted about the Antiqua case."

                After a brief moment of consideration, Touka shakes Uta's hand. "You are a hundred percent right. I am Touka Kirishima, and my rude brother who left in a hurry is Ayato Kirishima." she concedes. "It is a pleasure meeting you, as well, Mr. Uta. I hope we can work well together on this case."

                The man laughs. "Just 'Uta', please! 'Mr. Uta' makes me sound so old." he bites at a small piercing under his lip thoughtfully. "I am also going to assume you have accepted to work on this case with Renji and I?"

                "That is correct." Touka confirms. She opens the trunk of the truck and moves to pull out their luggage, only to be intercepted by Uta.

                "Please." he stops her politely. "Allow me. It's the least I can do to thank you for helping us."

                Touka decides that she likes this guy, despite how intimidating he appears to be at first.

\---

                Ayato wipes his hands on his jeans roughly. The damn hand driers don't work and there couldn't be anything more frustrating than damp hands right after you washed them, it's as though all the dust in the vicinity decides to flock to your hands and stick there.

                A man with silver-dyed hair sits on his own on one of the benches in the lobby. Ayato glances at the counter, noticing that there is a little sign that says "Be back later!" with a little doodle of a rabbit on it. Cute. The boy always had a soft spot for rabbits.

                "Are you mister Kirishima?"

                Ayato starts at the voice, turning to the silver haired man with shock in his eyes. "Excuse me?"

                "I asked, are you mister Kirishima?" the man repeats, standing up. He is considerably taller than Ayato, which irks him slightly, but he doesn't look too threatening. "I am Renji Yomo, from HySy. I will be working with you, this week."

                "That's… that's good to know." the younger male says uncertainly. "It's nice to meet you, Mr. Yomo."

                The man doesn't reply. Instead, he sits back down and resumes waiting. Ayato stands to the side awkwardly, listening to a distant clock tick a few minutes away. His hands are dry, by now. Eventually, he decides to walk toward the door, only to have it swing open in his face.

                "What the fu-"

                "My apologies," a black-haired man exclaims as he walks in. "I didn't know you were there."

                Touka follows quickly after. "Watch where you're going, idiot." she berates her brother, smacking his chest as she breezes past. "Pay attention. Maybe you wouldn't get into so many 'accidents'."

                Ayato rubs the spot where Touka hit, scowling. "That fucking hurt, thanks." he grumbles as he trails behind her.

                "You've met Mr. Yomo? That's good." she nods. "The man you almost walked into, before, was Uta. Can you believe it? Oh gosh, we're working with HySy. Ayato, Ayato, we're working with HySy." she freaks out relatively calmly, keeping her voice at a decent volume.

                "Yes, I'm aware, moron."

                "Whatever. Anyway, Uta was telling me that, since this is the time of year the haunting usually happen, there won't be many clients booking rooms, so we basically have the entire motel to ourselves. There are twenty four rooms, total, so we're going to divide them up into seven rooms each, so we each have a section of the motel to monitor. That way, we can cover a bit more ground."

                Ayato shrugs. "Sounds logical to me. What else?"

                "We each get our own rooms in the part of the motel we're assigned to monitor." Touka continues. "That's okay, right? I mean, we're not kids, anymore."

                Ayato nods and rolls his eyes. "Of course it's fine. Jeez, shitty sister, it's like you expect me to break into little pieces if you left me alone for, like, a day."

                She just sighs and shakes her head, giving him a concerned look. Uta returns with four key cards in hand.

                "Hello, again! Nice to meet you, I am Uta." he greets, smiling. "I look forward to working with you both! I've gotten the rooms for you two: Touka will be in charge of rooms eight to fourteen, and Ayato will be in charge of rooms one to seven. Is that alright?"

                The twins nod, taking their respective room cards and thanking the man.

                "Would you like to explore the motel before nightfall? The haunting start tomorrow, so it would be best to familiarize yourself with the motel so you know exactly what it is you will be handling, this week." Uta suggests, tipping his sunglasses down to look at them over the rims. "Take your time. You have until midnight, anyway."

\---

                They heed Uta's suggestion and decide to wander around the rooms they would be monitoring for the week, starting with Touka's rooms. Every single one is pristine and well-kept, though a faint smell of wet wood permeates through the air. A typical 'motel' smell, really. Nothing seems out of the ordinary, aside from the lack of people.

                Touka stops exploring after two and a half hours, stating that it would be more important to unpack and maybe socialize with the HySy investigators, get to know them a bit. Ayato refuses to join. Socializing was never his thing, anyway. Besides, exploring the rooms he was assigned would be more beneficial.

                He starts with room 7, going through every drawer and checking under the mattresses. He spends about forty-five minutes inspecting the entire room, even checking the tile and drains in the bathroom. Nothing stands out, and he moves on to the next room, repeating the process.

                By the time it's dark outside, Ayato managed to get through four rooms. He stops outside room #3, peering through the window suspiciously. There is a light on in the room, but he's almost certain there isn't anyone in that room. Uta said that they were the only ones here, right? He unlocks the door cautiously, checking the watch on the nightstand. It's only 8:30, so there shouldn't be any haunting yet.

                The bedside lamp is off, so Ayato ignores it for now in favor or creeping toward the bathroom. Light shines out from under the closed door, but he doesn't hear any noise.

                "What the fuck is this." the boy growls under his breath, reaching for the doorknob slowly. The door swings inward easily, and he sighs in relief when he finds nobody inside. Maybe one of the motel's janitors left the light on by accident. He reaches toward the light switch-

                The air becomes heavy, pressing down on Ayato's arm as though trying to force it away from the switch. A sob chokes out from behind him and he freezes. It is way too early for this shit.

                "… se."

                A shaky voice unfreezes Ayato's body and he rips his eyes away from the switch, looking over his shoulder to see a small, hunched figure crouching behind the door.

                "Please…" the figure begs, voice sounding distant and foggy. "Please don't close the lights. He comes when it's dark."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> a full 300 words longer than the previous chapter, I'm getting good at this yes
> 
> Also, please not that this is 100% unbeta'd so do tell me if I make any mistakes! \o/
> 
> Please tell me what you think! Your comments and kudos mean a lot to me (>;v;)>
> 
> also, hit me up on Halfandhalf-Kaneki.tumblr.com, or @pissbabyghoul on twitter and talk to me about ghost/supernatural aus yes


	3. Third Step: aquire target

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> well it's taken a damn long time for me to get this shit out huh

                There's something about the way the figure looks - it might be its wide, fear-filled eyes, or it might be its pathetic shaking - that pisses Ayato way off. It takes the boy a moment to recover from the initial shock, but he finally manages to muster up enough energy to move toward the hunched figure and grab it by the front of its tattered shirt. He hauls the poor thing up by the handful of cloth that he manages to get a hold of and slams it against the wall. The figure, who appears to be a boy not much younger than Ayato, but unfortunately taller, lets out a pathetic cry at the rough treatment.

                "Who the fuck are you and why are you here, you little shit stain?" Ayato growls, punctuating every word with a 'delicate' shove to the taller boy's chest. "Don't you know better than to camp out in unused hotel rooms in hotels that are haunted? What is it, huh? Homeless? Kicked out? On the run?"

                "I- I'm sorry!" the boy winces, trying to pry Ayato's hands off his shirt. "I promise I really don't want any trouble! I'm just a little stuck here, you see-"

                "'Stuck', my ass." the irate teen lets go of the boy's shirt, wiping his hands on his jeans. Who knows where that idiot went before he came here? Maybe he lives in the sewers or something. That would definitely explain why he looks like he's been rolling around in dirt. "What the fucking hell are you even doing here? Did you pay?"

                "I just told you! I'm stuck!" the urchin looks away and crosses his arms, shrinking away from Ayato's glare. "I can't leave this place. I always get bumped back into one of the rooms. Oh man, please don't turn the lights off, I swear there's something-"

                Ayato slaps his hand over the kid's mouth, effectively silencing him. "Is this some kind of joke? I literally do not care about your pissy little fear of the dark, or whatever. Just get out of here before tomorrow, because we're conducting a paranormal investigation here and we don't need any losers like you interfering with it." Weak protests fall on deaf ears as the smaller teen pulls the other away from the wall and toward the door, cursing under his breath. The kid doesn't even put up that much of a fight, it's almost pathetic.

                As Ayato passes in front of the nightstand, his gaze falls on the small mirror there. He looks pretty pissed, which is understandable, and he also looks like he's dragging nothing. Absolutely nothing at all. He's holding air, what the fuck. With a strangled noise, Ayato pushes the boy away and falls backward, unfortunately hitting the closed door. He scrambles to his feet as he rubs his head, looking from the stranger to the mirror and back in confusion. There's no reflection? The boy looks at him and the surrounding room with equal horror, for whatever reason Ayato can't fathom. It's not like _he's_ the one with a missing reflection.

                "What? What is it? Can you see him too? God, please tell me I'm not crazy, I swear there's something after me! It's keeping me here!" Ayato tunes out the rest of whatever the strange kid is saying, the cogs in his head turning as he works through the situation.

                "Are you a ghost?" he asks slowly. There's a noise in his ear now, something like a dull buzz. The kind of noise you hear from an overheating computer tower. The taller boy stops his nonsense mumbling and focuses on Ayato, looking confused. Ayato repeats himself: "Are. You. A ghost? Are you Kaneki Ken?"

                The ghost, Kaneki, gives an unhelpful shrug. "Yes? no? I'm not entirely sure, myself." he admits. "I _am_ Kaneki Ken, though. You're the first one to call me that in a long while. What time is it? That creepy thing is going to come after me pretty soon, I really-"

                "Wait, wait wait." Ayato interrupts the ghost, shaking his hands in front of the other's face to shut him up. "You're telling me. You're telling me there's _another_ ghost here? There's more than one asshole to take care of at this motel?"

                "Well-"

                "Look, that doesn't even matter. You're coming with me, anyway. The file said we're looking for a ghost that is _presumably_ the ghost of Kaneki Ken, and since you're Kaneki Ken we're going to have to take care of your ass first"

                The two boys stare each other down for a few seconds, clearly at an impasse. Kaneki blinks first, and Ayato lunges for him. The ghost stumbles backward, crashing into the foot of the bed and falling over in his attempt to get away from the murderous-looking Ayato. After a brief struggle that involved way too much physical contact than Ayato would have liked, he finally manages to get both of Kaneki's hands behind his back and proceeds to march him straight out the door. He pushes the ghost in the direction of the motel lobby, ignoring the quiet hiss of pain. Of course, having one's wrists held at this angle is probably painful, but Ayato really couldn’t be bothered to give a damn.

                "Wait please don't kick me out! I have no idea where I'll end up once I-" Kaneki's protest is cut off by Ayato once again.

                The smaller boy shakes his head stubbornly. "Nope, not buying it. I'm taking you straight to HySy and then we can figure out how to send your sorry ass back into the ghost realm, or whatever." The buzzing in his ears persists, growing louder with each step the pair takes away from the rooms. Ayato shakes his head in an attempt to clear the annoying noise, to no avail. In the end, he chooses to ignore it rather than let it get to him.

                Strangely enough, along with the buzzing in his ears, it seems to be getting more and more difficult to move forward. Ayato scrunches his nose and pushes Kaneki's back a bit harder, but the feeling doesn’t give. "Are you trying to push backward?" he asks, glaring angrily at the back of Kaneki's head, which shakes in denial.

                "Fine then." Ayato shrugs. "Buckle up, kid." he warns before he gives the ghost a mighty shove. Of course, he's suddenly met with very little resistance and the buzzing in his ears culminates with a ' _pop'._ The teen doesn't manage to right himself in time and proceeds to fall flat on his face, eating a fair amount of gravel.

                "WHAT THE FUCK" Ayato comes up spitting dirt and maybe a bit of fire, which really wouldn't be surprising, given how pissed he is right now. He whirls on Kaneki, ready to give the ghost the most shit he would have ever gotten in his un-life, but the pathetic little shitbomb is nowhere to be found. "Fuck!"

                Expletives continue to pour out of Ayato's mouth, along with sand and a few stones, as he gets to his feet and brushes himself off roughly. He looks around, still disoriented from the sudden change in atmosphere and slightly pissed that he somehow managed to lose his ghost, when a light in the lobby window catches his eye. He spots Touka talking with a blond kid at the desk. Well, if his sister decided that talking to that nerd was a good way to waste her time, Ayato may as well join her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry it's taken so long for me to actually write this, i swear i didn't give up yet. College has been a huge bitch, not surprisingly, and. well. when you have 1k+ word essays due every other week, you don't particularly feel like writing much else 
> 
> I AM sorry for being slow, really. please understand, I'm an artist not a writer, so getting my ideas out in words and paragraphs is a bit harder for me to do. if you've stuck around this long, thank you I love you please stay tuned for next time. if you've just got here, hi! I'm THAT asshole author that doesnt actually know how to write! welcome to my fic! 
> 
> hopefully, with summer here, I can get more chapters up. thanks for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> yo this is my first fic for Tokyo Ghoul and my first multi-chapter fic ever, basically. I'm not too sure how many chapters I'll write, maybe like ten at most, but if you guys like it I'll definitely try to keep it going ^^ please tell me what you think!


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